Another Advantage of Mass-Preserving Reallocation
A frequent problem is the reassignment of observations from one set of collection units to a different set, when the two set are not nested nor compatible. For example converting the number of children observed by census tract to a count by school district.
The density values obtained using the smooth pycnophylactic method allows an estimate to be made rather simply. A “cookie cutter” can cut the continuous clay surface into the new zones with subsequent addition to get the count.